Unbrokenby RainbowsAreMagicChaptersUnbrokenGuardNamelessDarknessTraitorTo All Things, An EndUnbrokenUNBROKEN Luna walked down the cobbled street, her hooves eerily silent. The moon was new that night, as it always was when she walked the streets of Canterlot. A thick, black fog accompanied her, and streetlights flickered and went out as she approached, only to slowly, painfully regain their flame once she was gone. The darkness was nearly complete, as its Princess walked ever onward. Ponies feared that moving darkness. They knew not its source, its nature, or its purpose. Only one thing was known, and that was what brought their fears: where that darkness passed, sometimes, ponies would disappear without a trace. Foals, always, and usually homeless. The ones who were doomed to live and die in the streets, never knowing warmth or happiness. Few lived long enough to reach adulthood, and fewer still were able to rise above their wretched beginnings and live a happy life. The ponies who disappeared were at once the best and the worst of those wretched souls. They were the worst, in that they were usually soon to die already, whether from hunger or from abuse by more fortunate ponies. They were the best in that despite their miserable lives, they still retained that fundamental pony essence, that sheer will to survive which had kept them alive so long. They were the ones who despite the horrors which life had thrust upon them, remained unbroken in mind and in spirit. Most ponies cowered in the all-encompassing darkness, but some did not. Some ponies stood proudly even in the face of the feared unknown. The unbroken ones. Luna walked among them, spoke to them, called to them by name. Luna walked down the cobbled street, cloaked in darkness, a shadow within shadows. The next morning, the missing ponies would be noticed. Not missed, certainly not by many, but their absence would be noticed nonetheless. The unknown darkness would be blamed for their deaths, and the lack of bodies would make it all the more terrifying. Ponies she had passed by would rejoice in life, however fleeting or terrible it might be, for they still possessed it. Her passage was a reminder to them that life was not something to take for granted. It was a precious gift, and it was something to be celebrated. For once in a while, on a new moon, ponies would vanish from the streets of Canterlot, and life is never so precious as it is when it is uncertain. ☾ Harvest Moon woke up. It was night, and a new moon. The most dangerous of nights for an orphan in Canterlot, he knew. The darkness consumed ponies, as they vanished into the cold, empty air. His stomach hurt. Harvest knew he needed to eat soon, or he would die within a day or two, at most. Harvest also knew he had no food, and little chance of getting enough to keep him alive within that time. He was going to die. It was a sad irony, he thought to himself. He would soon die of hunger, even if he was not consumed by the darkness that even now rolled down the street. Harvest Moon blinked. The darkness was approaching. He should be afraid. He should flee from it, try to find shelter. But why? He would soon die anyway. It was better to face his death with dignity and with pride, he reasoned, than it was to die in some cold corner, wasting away to nothing. He stood before the coming darkness, and did not fear it. There was a flash of panic as the darkness flowed past him, and it was all he could see. Then, he saw her. She was glorious. And she turned, looked at him. He felt like her eyes could see through his soul. And she spoke to his heart. Harvest Moon, my little pony, you are dying. Your heart is noble, and your spirit pure. You do not deserve to die like this. Come, walk with me, and I will take you away from this life of pain forever. He blinked again. This goddess of night wanted him to walk with her. He did not expect to survive, but for a time, he might at least have some measure of happiness, even being close to this wondrous apparition. It did not bother him to see the three other foals already with her, nor did it when another joined them, for he had eyes only for Luna. They walked a long ways, that night. Those first ponies must have walked longer still. Somehow, the magic of the princess kept him going long past when his legs should have given out. Outside the cloud of darkness, it was close to moonset when Luna led the five young ponies into a cave. As the sun rose outside, the foals never knew; the inside of the cave remained as dark as the night they had left behind. Shadows flickered over the walls, but they did not fear, for Luna was with them. They heard strange, unfamiliar sounds, but they did not fear, for Luna was with them. Yellow, slitted eyes watched them as they walked ever downwards, but they did not fear, for Luna was with them. The procession stopped after entering a cavern, and the Princess of the Darkness finally spoke. "We have arrived. It is time." Finally, it seemed, it was over. Harvest Moon was ready to accept his death at the end of the walk, but to his surprise, it didn't come. "A meal has been prepared for you. I hope you enjoy it, my little ponies." Luna's cloak of darkness lifted, and dim light allowed the ponies to see. They found themselves in a smaller part of what must have been a very large cave system, lit by dim lamps which gave everything a bluish tint. The thing that held the ponies' attention, however, was a great table, set with all manner of foods a pony might dream of. There were all kinds of salads, there were bowls of fruit, there were pies of all sorts. There were things the foals had never seen before, and things they saw other ponies eat every day. There were cups, too, but nothing to put in them. It was like a dream come true for Harvest Moon. He knew better than to gorge himself on the bounty, however, or he would only throw it all up later. He'd learned that the hard way on one of Celestia's feast days, when there were great tables set out in the castle and anypony and everypony could come and eat. So, he picked his foods carefully, seeing his companions do the same. After a few minutes, they started talking to each other. At first, all they could talk about was the food. Some of the other ponies seemed to recognize a few of the foods that he couldn't, and encouraged him to try them. He discovered spices for the first time in his life. From his amazement at the spices came the explanation that he'd never lived anywhere but in the streets of Canterlot, his parents having died soon after he was born. He readily learned the names of the other ponies, and was soon fast friends with Crimson Rose, Orange Blossom, Sugar Song, Star Charmer, and Steel Wind. The first two were earth ponies like he was, the second two were unicorns, and the last was a pegasus. They'd all led similar lives in the streets of Canterlot, trying as best they could to stay alive, and slowly, very slowly failing. Like him, the other five ponies would have died within a few days of the new moon, had not Luna intervened. All of them now spoke of the princess in wonder, with smiles on their faces and happiness in their hearts. These were foals who knew how to derive happiness from even the smallest things, for that was all they had, and she had given them a meal when they were starving. It was not long after they finished eating that Luna returned, carrying a pitcher filled with some black liquid. She looked upon the foals, and they knew that this was a solemn moment. Their conversation ceased, and they looked uncertain for the first time. The Princess of the Darkness walked around the table, stopping to fill each pony's cup with the black liquid. It was a curious substance, seeming to swirl about of its own accord, and some of the ponies looked at it nervously. "Not so long ago, I spoke to you," she said. "I told you in your hearts that I would take you away from your life of suffering, if you would only walk with me. You have done what I asked, and now I will fulfill my promise. Never will you have to return to that life. Drink, my little ponies." Crimson Rose drank first, and then Star Charmer, Sugar Song, and Steel Wind a moment later. Even as the latter two finished the contents of the cup, Crimson Rose gasped, reaching out with a hoof, and collapsed. The other three of Harvest Moon's new friends collapsed as well, after looking stricken and unwell. Their eyes still stared ahead, unseeing. Now that he had eaten a good meal, Harvest Moon had a new desire to live. He didn't want to, but he drank the strange liquid. It as wasn't bitter as he expected, but rather almost sweet, like somepony had added too much sugar to cover up a bad taste. The stuff roiled in his mouth, but with some difficulty, he choked it down. Almost immediately, he felt a cold feeling spreading from his stomach through his body, like he'd been out in the snow and cutting wind of a winter storm for far too long. As the icy cold filled his body, everything began to fade away, and then all he knew was darkness. Soon enough, Harvest Moon was no more. GuardGUARD Shining Armor sighed. Once again, there was panic in the streets. The dark cloud had struck again only a night before, on a new moon, as always. Whoever was behind the disappearances was a clever pony, to use the darkness of night so well. It struck him as somewhat ironic that many ponies would watch these orphans starve to death without a second thought, but if those same orphans started to simply disappear, citizens panicked. It was ironic, but it was his problem to deal with. As Captain of the Guard, it was his duty and his responsibility to keep order within Canterlot. Every new moon, he failed, as had his predecessor before him. On the streets where the darkness roamed, ponies shivered in terror. These ponies feared the unknown darkness. Shining Armor knew exactly what was going on. There was a pony responsible for this, and he would find that pony and bring the monster to justice. The fact that no bodies were ever found only made it worse. It could be a serial murderer, it could be slavery. There were some ponies without morals, ponies who would sell others into servitude to the griffins, the diamond dogs, or worse. He'd heard that most of the ones sold to the dragons ended up as lunch. The previous captain had done very little to identify the foalnapper, concerning himself far too much with trivial matters. Petty thievery, drunken brawls, and the like. Shining Armor was going to change that. Nopony would live in fear, not in his city. The new captain walked down to the districts where the darkness had been seen. There was no obvious sign of its passing, save in ponies' behavior. Everypony was silent as he passed, the people watching him carefully. "Hello?" he called out. "I'm with the guard, here to talk to you about what happened last night!" Windows slammed shut and bolts slid home in doors. This was getting nowhere. He returned to his office, defeated. ☾ Shining Armor looked over the papers before him. Nopony had seen the pony behind the disappearances. When it appeared, the dark fog would always billow out from some alley, rarely the same one twice, and then pass down the street, engulfing anyone it passed in inky blackness. It would then wander around the city, mostly the poorer parts of town but sometimes creeping into the streets of the well-to-do, before eventually passing through the main gate. The guards there reported feeling like they were frozen, unable to move as the darkness passed out of the city. Shining Armor knew that holding spells were not difficult ones, and left almost no magical signature. The darkness itself, on the other hand, did. Unfortunately, it was one that Shining Armor couldn't make any sense of. He'd sent a letter to his sister Twilight Sparkle, requesting assistance, but he wasn't sure whether she'd received¬– The door opened. "Hi Shiney!" Never mind. She had. "Hey, Twilight! How's my little sister been?" Twilight responded with something ending in an incredibly long explanation of the inefficiencies in Starswirl the Bearded's original amniomorphic spell, most of which her older brother couldn't understand. "…and then I realized that in the later version, by changing the sub-level spell matrices Starswirl was able to increase efficiency by almost eight percent, which means that I could…" "Twilight, please, you're making my head hurt. It's great to hear what you've been working on, but I have a spell I need you to identify." As he'd expected, the violet pony jumped at the chance to see a new spell. "Lead on, brother!" Against his instincts, he led his sister down to a run-down street where the darkness had appeared. A few minutes passed. "Shining?" "Twilight?" "Why did we stop?" "Oh! We're here, silly. This is where the spell was." Closing her eyes, Twilight focused hard on the spell trace, her concentration evident in her expression. It was amazing, she thought to herself. Strands of magic twisted this way and that in convoluted patterns. Ordinary spell traces were simple things, which you could use to do all sorts of things, from identifying the caster to discerning the function of the spell itself. This one, though, this one was a work of art. There must have been at least six different magical effects within this single spell, all of them of different kinds. Twilight stopped for a moment, just to revel in its incredible complexity. Releasing the trace, the unicorn opened her eyes. "Well, Shining, I don't know what this spell actually does, let alone who cast it. It's a magical masterpiece, though. Somepony worked on this spell for a very long time. I'd love to meet whoever created it." Shining Armor didn't have the heart to tell her that whoever created the spell might also be a serial murderer, of foals no less, and that he would never allow such a pony to get within so much as shouting range of his sister. He settled for something a little gentler. "I don't think that's likely to happen, Twilight." The purple pony misunderstood him completely. "Oh, don't worry! That doesn't mean we can't figure out what the spell does! Watch this!" Closing her eyes again, she hooked a tendril of her own magic into the spell matrix and fed it some power. She felt the matrix twist in her magical grasp as her own spell took hold. "This should produce an image of the original spell's effects, so we can look at it and-" Shining Armor yelled, "Twilight, you blinded me!" Twilight lost her concentration, and the spell slipped out of her control. She watched as the matrix rapidly consumed what power she had fed it, twisted in on itself, and vanished. "Twily, please never, ever do that again," moaned Shining Armor. "I can see again, but I thought I was cursed or something! Celestia herself might have had to come here to dispel it then, for all we know!" Twilight glared at him. "I said it was an image, Shining Armor. I would never cast a replica of a spell I didn't understand, certainly not one like this. Furthermore, even if it had been a curse, we would have just seen an image of a cursed pony. This spell made darkness, so that's what we saw. As far as I could tell before you made me lose my concentration, this spell made a cloud of darkness tied to the caster. I'm pretty sure it had some other effects too, but any chance we had at finding out what they were is gone now. When I lost control of my spell, it consumed the trace and vanished." Shining Armor had the sense to look contrite. "Sorry, Twilight, I guess I over-reacted a little. I know a lot about barriers and other magic for guard use, but not a lot about this kind of thing. Illusions and images aren't something I'm used to dealing with." Twilight looked back at her older brother. "That's what you have me for, BBBFF." She smiled, before continuing, "This was a pretty amazing spell, though. Thanks for calling me up here to see it." Twilight frowned. "I should get back to Ponyville. There's no knowing what mischief Spike may have gotten into while I was gone." Remembering the little purple dragon, Shining Armor nodded. "Yeah, I bet he can be a real handful. I'll walk you back to the train station." NamelessNAMELESS The pony had once been called Harvest Moon slowly woke to a pleasant darkness. His slitted eyes glowed as they reflected the dim light, and his coat was of a dull grey instead of the bright orange it had once been. He stretched lazily, yawning as he extended his new, purple wings. He had no name, he thought, because he wasn't the same pony he had been. The pony he had been was an orphan who nopony cared for and whose death would not be mourned. The nameless pony was different. He was loved by his goddess, Luna, and he would live. He wasn't sure how he knew this, but he was sure that his goddess would protect him, watch over him, and guard him. Standing up, he found himself in a room with four other ponies like himself. He saw a large table, empty now, and remembered. There had been a meal, and then a cup. He thought he was going to die, but Luna's mercy was something more than that, it seemed. She had spoken truly; he would never return to the life he had lived. Not while Luna remained, and she was eternal. The door opened, and she entered. "You are a strong one, pony once called Harvest Moon, to have awakened so soon and so completely. But that isn't who you are anymore, is it?" The nameless pony shook his head. No, he had changed. Harvest Moon was no more. His goddess smiled gently as she regarded him. "Would you like a new name?" A new name. A new identity. A new life. Her question carried with it a sense of rightness, a sense of having the authority required to make such an offer. He found himself smiling. "Yes, my princess," the nameless pony responded, "I think I would like that very much." "Then choose, for it is up to you now what you will become." The nameless pony had once been called Harvest Moon, but that name felt wrong now. Something about it lingered within him, however. "I think I'd like to be called… Sickle Moon." If his goddess was surprised, she showed no sign. "A good name, Sickle Moon. It suits you well. Please remain here for now. It would not do for your friends to wake up alone. You are strong in will, to wake so quickly from the change. Your friends may still take some time. Let them rest for now, and I will return when they awaken." It was some time before any of the other ponies woke up. Following some unknown instinct, Sickle Moon stepped into the shadows as one of the other ponies began to stir. It was Steel Wind, though with the pony's changed appearance, he was unsure just how he knew. As the other pony slowly awakened, Sickle Moon reflected upon this. Was there some link that had been made between the five of them? It didn't feel like there was, beyond the friendship they had forged over their last meal. Perhaps it was merely remnants of Steel Wind's prior appearance. Looking at the other pony from his place in the shadows, Sickle Moon was nigh invisible, but Steel Wind was in plain view. There was indeed a trace of the pony he had once been. The gray of his coat, slightly lighter than Sickle's, and the tufts of hair on his ears, slightly longer. Steel Wind was now well and truly awake. He looked around uncertainly. "Hello? Is anyone there? Where am I?" There was a pause. "Who am I?" The time was right. Sickle Moon spoke from the shadows, "That is a question only you can answer. You will never return to the life you have left. That life is over." He stepped from the shadows into the light. "I am Sickle Moon, once called Harvest Moon. I am not the pony I used to be, however, and I suspect neither are you." As Sickle Moon spoke, the pony once called Steel Wind turned to face him. "I don't think I am either. But who am I, then? Did she tell you that?" Sickle Moon looked at the pony before him. Here was a pony much like himself, and his friend. He had to do his best to explain to this pony what Luna had told him, because she wasn't here to do it herself, and because the pony before him needed to know. "Our goddess Luna spoke to me, not long ago, and this is what she said to me. You are not the pony you once were. Who you become is up to you. She will grant you a new name, as she did me, and that will begin your new life in her sacred darkness." Wait. Our goddess? Her sacred darkness? Where did that come from? Sickle Moon hesitated. He had long known of Luna as a Princess of Equestria, but he had never really thought of her as a goddess. Yet somehow it felt right to do so. There was no question in his mind that she was divine and worthy of his devotion, but he had never thought that before… He decided after a moment's thought that it wasn't important what he had thought before; he knew now of Luna's glory and her wonder, and that was what mattered. The pony who had been Steel Wind, too, stumbled for a moment, but evidently reached the same conclusion as Sickle Moon. It was then that there was a sound from the other side of the room. Crimson Rose stirred. As one, the two ponies stepped back into the shadows as she began to awaken. ☾ Princess Luna watched as ripples spread across the pool. Her reflection disappeared, replaced by an image of a room containing five ponies. Only one was awake, the others all unconscious. As she looked on, one of them began to stir, and the pony stepped back into the shadows. She had told him she would return when the others awakened, but she wanted to see what this pony would do. What she had told him before was the truth; no other pony had woken so completely, or so quickly. The princess of the night watched as he waited for the other pony to get his bearings, before speaking from the shadows, only stepping into the light as he introduced himself. A flair for the dramatic, it seemed. Luna smiled, remembering days long ago, as the surface of the pool rippled to replicate the pony's speech. When he referred to her as his goddess, she blinked. Such a rapid association was also rare. She knew that this pony would willingly follow her to the depths of Tartarus if she called upon him, and had the strength to actually do so. She shivered for a moment, and the image in the pool vanished. ☾ Sickle Moon turned as the door opened, his enhanced hearing picking up the slight scrape of the wood on stone. He bowed, followed by four other ponies, as Luna entered. His goddess looked upon him. Hail, Luna. "My little ponies," she began. "I once offered you death. It takes a great deal of courage to accept such an offer, but it takes even more to live again. Now, I give you life again in my name. It is up to you what you make of it in these depths, far below Canterlot. "You have no doubt realized that you are changed from the ponies you used to be. The ponies who followed me here were destined to die, but you can make your own lives now, your fates rewritten by the magic of the Font of Shadows. You are creatures of myth, now, all but forgotten in the mists of time. As creatures of the night, you fall within my domain alone. When you walk at night, my darkness will cloak you, but should you pass into the light of day, you will be seen. "Even Celestia does not know that you exist today; she never knew the true origins of the nox equus, the pony of the night. The Font of Shadows itself must be protected from those who would abuse its power, and that task is your charge. Do not be seen by the light of day, but otherwise, your life is up to you." Luna was not surprised when Sickle Moon spoke first, breaking a long silence. "I would live in the service of my goddess, if it pleases you." Cocking her head, Luna feigned ignorance of his meaning. "Well, I suppose that depends on who your goddess is…" she trailed off. The response was instant. "It is you, Princess Luna, goddess of night, of shadows, and of darkness. Your stars guide me in the night, and it is your shadows wherein I hide, your darkness wherein I find shelter. Your wonder is infinite, and your glory everlasting." Luna blinked. This one would be a handful. Her next words were very careful. She could make anything of this pony, anything she wished. A guard, a servant, an assassin, even a… she turned her mind from such thoughts. "Please, call me Luna. We have no need for titles in these depths, for in the darkness all ponies are the same. But I do have a need for ponies with your dedication. As I said before, the Font of Shadows must be guarded, and those who guard it must do so with their lives." Sickle Moon simply nodded. As they always did. "You will receive training far exceeding that found in the world above," she continued, "and far beyond the capability of the strongest ponies of the world you have left. Even with the gifts of the Font of Shadow, most ponies fail." Her warning went unheeded, if not unnoticed. "I will pass any test you give me, Pri- Luna." She smirked. Like all the others, he would break, eventually. "We shall see." DarknessDARKNESS It was night, in the deep woods of the Everfree Forest. Few ponies dared to tread between those trunks, let alone at night, but Sickle Moon had no fear of them. The pony standing before Sickle Moon looked unearthly, as though he was made almost entirely of shadow itself. It looked at him, and its eyes were orbs of darkness so deep they seemed to draw the light out of the world. Sickle Moon shivered involuntarily, but he was not afraid. By Luna's grace, he would face whatever he needed to in order to become her worthy servant. Then it spoke. "You are the one they call Sickle Moon," it stated in a gravelly voice, steeped with time. "Are you afraid?" Defiantly, the young pony shook his head. "You should be. I am called Noctis, created by Luna's will from the Font of Shadow. My purpose is to guide you, until you truly become the sickle of Luna's moon. For your first test, answer me a single question, mortal pony: What do you fear?" "What do I fear? I fear nothing, Noctis, for I have Luna to guide me." "And if Luna is gone? What then?" "Luna would never leave me!" "No, she would not. Not of her own will, at least. Yet, there are powers which surpass her own. Celestia once used one of them to lock her away for a thousand years in the moon. Or did you forget?" Sickle Moon stumbled. It was difficult to imagine Luna not being there, even though he knew she had returned only recently from that long imprisonment. "What will you do, mortal pony, when Luna cannot guide you? If you wish to achieve true control, you must think for yourself. Strike me, pony." Sickle Moon looked at the ghostly pony before him. The creature looked to be a thousand years old. "I don't want to hurt you…" Instead of a response, the spectral figure kicked Sickle Moon, hard enough to send him reeling from the blow. "Strike me, pony." Sickle Moon was angry now. He lunged at the other pony, only to fall flat as his hoof passed right through his target. "Strike me, pony." Again, Sickle Moon struck, this time with a hard backwards kick. Again, his hooves passed right through his target. "Strike me, pony." "Why? When I strike you, Noctis, it does nothing." Noctis looked impassive. "So I cannot be touched? You must successfully strike me in combat to progress in your training. You know this." Sickle Moon frowned, uncertain. "Tell me, Noctis. How many ponies give up?" Noctis' expression remained unchanged. "At this level, some ponies give up, yes. Eventually? They all do. "Strike me, pony." All of them? If the training was impossible, then where did the Centurions come from? Sickle Moon's confusion was interrupted by an attack from Noctis, knocking the pony to the ground. "It's impossible!" Sickle Moon yelled. Noctis was unmoved. "Do you give up, then? Will you join the rest of the ponies who failed to pass the test? Or will you keep trying the same thing over and over? Strike me, pony." Something in the shadow pony's taunt resonated within Sickle Moon. Sickle Moon's eyes flashed. In order to strike Sickle Moon, Noctis had to be solid. Watching for the trainer's blow, Sickle Moon dodged it and counterattacked with a blow of his own. It hit something that felt incredibly cold, but yielded under the force of his hoof. Noctis stumbled, hard. "Well done, mortal pony. You have gone outside the limits you set for yourself, and done what you could not before. We shall proceed to the next lesson. This one is a little harder. To make things easier, I will remain in a solid form during this test. Strike me, pony." A breath of wind passed along Sickle Moon's flank, and he shivered. Reaching out, he hit Noctis in the flank, but his hoof passed right through, with no resistance. Something tripped him, and he fell to the dirt. Sickle Moon swore. "You said you would remain in solid form!" Noctis spoke, standing behind him now. "And I did." Sickle Moon whirled to face the trainer. "Strike me, pony." A breath of wind passed by again, Sickle Moon's hoof passed through the pony's form, and he was tripped again. Noctis' voice was behind him again, impassive as ever. "You must learn to do what you cannot. Strike me, pony." Sickle Moon remembered the previous test. If Noctis was in a solid form, and his hoof passed through where he knew Noctis to be, then Noctis wasn't where he should be. He was tripped again. "You are correct. Your senses deceive you. Strike me, pony." Sickle Moon faced Noctis and closed his eyes. When he felt a breath of wind pass by, he turned and struck at its source. Noctis shimmered into view, stumbling, as his image vanished from where it had been. "You have passed this test, pony. Your eyes will not always tell you true. You have learned this now. You have gone outside the limits you set for yourself, and done what you could not before. We shall now proceed to the next lesson. This one is a little harder. To make things easier, I will again remain in a solid form." A brisk breeze sprang up, rustling the leaves around the two ponies, and Noctis vanished entirely. "Strike me, pony." With the Sickle Moon couldn't feel the trainer's passing with the breeze interfering. He struck where the pony had been before, blindly, his hooves meeting only air. "Strike me, pony." This time, Sickle Moon struck to the other side, but again he found only air, and Noctis tripped him from behind, as he had before. "How am I supposed to hit you when I can't tell where you are?" cried out the frustrated pony as he got to his hooves. "You could be anywhere! If I strike blindly, I'll just miss!" "This is true, pony. Blindly lashing out will not-" Noctis' response was cut off as Sickle Moon tackled him. After a moment, he spoke again. "You could not see me yourself, so you tricked me into revealing my location. An interesting tactic, but not the purpose of this exercise." Noctis got up, and then faded from view once again. "Strike me, pony." "You must learn to do what you cannot. Strike me, pony." Sickle Moon feinted left, then struck right. He missed. "Your feint is unconvincing and needs work. You will not fool somepony as experienced as I with such a tactic. Strike me, pony." Standing on one of his front legs, Sickle Moon quickly swung his body around in a circle, just to see if Noctis was even there. One of his rear legs touched Noctis' cold body. "You have touched me, yes. However, a blow that was not. Spreading your power over such a wide area will leave little force behind your blow. Strike me, pony." Abruptly, Sickle Moon knew what he had to do. He rapidly swung around as he had before, but this time when his leading rear hoof touched cold flesh he planted the other and pushed off towards Noctis' location with his front hooves. Sickle Moon's body swung around and slammed into Noctis, knocking them both to the ground. "An effective maneuver," the spectral pony admitted, "if inelegant. You have gone outside the limits you set for yourself, and done what you could not before. I can see that your body is exhausted. We are done for tonight. Practice what you have learned, and then return to this place." The pony faded from view one last time, with a sense of finality. With a sigh, Sickle Moon began the flight back towards Canterlot, his wings beating heavily through the night air. TraitorTRAITOR As always, silence reigned supreme in the grand Library of Canterlot. In a dark corner of the place sat Prince Blueblood, searching for a way. He would find one. It might take a very long time, but he would find a way. She opposed him. She was in his way, working behind his back, undoing his machinations. When he quietly removed restrictions and laws to protect workers, she quietly put them back. When he found ways to turn ponies against her, she quickly won them over once again. With Celestia in the way, Blueblood's power could not grow. Her policies were good to her ponies, but bad for his own goals. He had to remove her from the equation. He knew that no cell could contain the avatar of the sun, that no binding could hold her. He knew that he could never turn her ponies against her faster than she could win them back. He could not reveal her corruption, for she had none. There was only one way to remove the ruler of Equestria: through that most dangerous of methods: he had to destroy her. He had to match her power and overwhelm her with his own. He had to overpower the sun itself, find something stronger. And so Blueblood had come here, to the greatest library in Equestria, chasing ancient legends and long-forgotten tales. He had found nothing of use. There were hints of things, references to ancient powers. The Elements of Harmony. The Crystal Heart. The Rainbow of Light. The Smooze. Useless, all of it. Certainly, these were all powerful, but none of them could be twisted to his will. Blueblood was almost ready to give up on his search when he found a reference to something else. One book on dark magic mentioned an artifact, long hidden away, called the Font of Shadow. It was said to grant incredible power to one who could master its power, at an unspecified cost. In the wrong hands, the author claimed, the Font could wreak havoc upon the land. This was the power Blueblood needed. The Font of Shadow would be his, if only he could find it. Changing the focus of his search, Blueblood looked through historical documents, searching for irregularities. If the Font were discovered, surely Celestia, with her burning hatred of dark magic, would have acted on it. Finally, he found it. Well over a thousand years ago, there was a mine deep beneath modern Canterlot which inadvertently tunneled into some natural caverns. After an expedition into the caverns, they were sealed away by Celestia's order, without explanation. Records of the expedition itself were missing entirely, but references to it indicated that something was discovered down there. It had to be the Font of Shadow. Blueblood was certain of it. Looking at more recent records, he saw that the mine had been quietly closed a few years ago at the directive of Princess Luna. The reason given was that it was undermining the ground beneath Canterlot. Looking at geological surveys, the mine was not only on the other side of the mountain, but far enough below Canterlot that there shouldn't have been a problem. However, all surveys of the central part of the mountain were strangely missing, despite records of such surveys having been made. The princesses were hiding something deep inside the mountain. Blueblood stood. He knew now what to do. He would find the Font of Shadow, he would take its power, and he would use it to destroy Celestia. The pony strode from the library, satisfied. Assembling a team was an easy matter. Few ponies wanted to work for the abrasive noble, but he had enough bits that they agreed anyway. Everypony has a price, and Blueblood could pay it. Ponies with experience in caves. Unicorns with powerful light spells, and strong earth ponies to carry supplies and equipment (and otherwise be ignored, of course). ☾ He took his team of five ponies down to the base of the mountain, a few weeks later. The gate to the old mine was rusted and locked; he blasted the lock with a bolt of magic and had another pony push the gate open. The mine itself was small and cramped. Blueblood was thankful for his foresight in bringing the unicorns along; the place was pitch dark inside. Somewhere in the distance, water dripped. A discarded map revealed the location of the cavern. When a rockfall blocked the way, he ordered the earth ponies to clear it away. Many hours passed before Blueblood's team reached the caverns. Emerging finally from the cramped tunnels of the mine, the ponies found themselves in a decent-sized cavern. There was a hint of light from one end. Blueblood told a unicorn to investigate. When she returned, she reported that there was an entrance to the surface in an adjoining cavern. Blueblood cursed. "All that wasted time in the mines waiting for the earth ponies to clear rocks, and we could have gotten in right here." One of the two earth ponies said to the other, "No amount of bits is worth dealing with the prince. I'm out of here." He dropped his pack and walked out of the cave. Blueblood never saw him again, and didn't care. The rest of the ponies had quickly set up a base camp at the entrance. Night was approaching, and the ponies (except Blueblood, who hadn't been doing any work) were tired. They flatly refused to move on that night. ☾ Prince Blueblood woke up. His bedding had been entirely unsatisfactory, it had been difficult for him to get to sleep, and his hooves hurt from all the walking, but he tolerated the primitive conditions. The Font of Shadow had better be worth it. Looking around, he saw that he was the last to awaken, and that the other ponies had begun without him, almost completely ready to get started. Breakfast was waiting for him, as it should have been. Then he saw what it was. "Oatmeal? Are you crazy?" ☾ Blueblood peered through the darkness. Before him, it stretched on endlessly, like a well going down, down, down, forever into the depths of the mountain. The light from his horn extended only a few feet, only a few precious feet of light to push back the darkness all around him. The pathetic earth ponies had abandoned him early on, and the unicorns had turned back as well. His promises of gold were ignored, his threats of retribution leading to no better result. Like it or not, he was alone in the darkness. To his left, he thought he saw a light, a reflection in the consuming blackness which surrounded him. And then it was gone, just as quickly. Blueblood shuddered. Had he seen something? Was it his imagination playing tricks on him? He wasn't sure. He picked up the pace of his steps, and hurried onward. Blueblood noticed that the cave had a downward slope. He was descending, not only going deeper into the mountain, but deeper underground as well. Then he saw another glint of light, gone, just as quickly as the first, but this time to his right. Blueblood kept walking. His eyes darted this way and that, but the unicorn kept walking, onward, ever onward and downward into the deepest reaches of the mountain. A flash. Eyes! He was sure of it! Something down here was watching him, something in the dark. Blueblood kept moving, but he was trotting now. He wanted to get out of this cursed cave, which he became increasingly certain was watching him, eying him with malice in mind, before it could swallow him up. The darkness! The eyes! ☾ Blueblood found himself before a wide, raised basin of water, ornamented with all manner of creatures of darkness carved into the solid piece of stone from which the room and the basin were wrought. Bats, spiders, and things he couldn't identify. A few of the carvings even looked like some unholy combination of pony and bat. The carvings were incredibly detailed, incredibly lifelike, almost as though- "Halt, intruder." Blueblood whirled, loosing a blast of arcane energy at the voice. A voice cried out in surprise, then pain. He heard something hit the rock of the cave floor, then silence reigned once again, save for the sound of his own heavy breathing. The darkness beyond his horn's light was so intense he could almost touch it. He peered down into the water in the basin. His horn's light could not penetrate the inky darkness of the liquid, for he soon realized it wasn't water at all. The liquid was some oily substance, seeming to swallow up any light that touched it. This must be the place which he sought. The Font of Shadows. Suddenly unsure, Blueblood hesitated. What power did this liquid hold? What- "Do not desecrate the Font!" angry voices called out. "Step away!" Blueblood wasn't sure if the angry voices were real or just in his mind, but he didn't intend to stick around to find out. He bent down over the pool, and drank deeply of the liquid within. ☾ The darkness was within him. It breathed as he did, as one. Blackblood looked around him, and smiled. The power was his now, his to control and his to command. The darkness around him no longer impeded his vision, and he strode outside the room with confidence. There was shouting behind him, sounds of panic and rage. With a thought, a shimmering barrier of blackest night appeared behind him. Blackblood strode on as the shouts turned from anger to frustration. His power was absolute. Nothing would stop him now. Blackblood strode from the cave into the light, his hooves trailing wisps of dark energy. The sun-loving faces of the ponies would tremble before his power. He cloaked himself in darkness, a cloud of night moving through the afternoon sun. Ponies screamed in fright, and he smiled. Celestia would die this day. Silently, he marched onward. Nothing and nopony stood in his way and survived. Guards panicked and fled their posts at the castle gates. He broke them down with a bolt of dark energy far more powerful than the one he had used before his rise to power. Nothing opposed him as he broke down the doors to the throne room. "Celestia! Your time has come, and you shall die this day!" To All Things, An EndTO ALL THINGS, AN END The doors to the throne room burst open. Ponies scattered as a cloud of darkness filled the room, billowing forth from the door. The court fled in terror, but the guards at least stood firm. These were no weak-willed conscripts, no, these were Celestia's elite guard - not that she needed them. Celestia stood tall, proud and defiant in the face of this threat. "Celestia! Your time had come, and you shall die this day!" The cry rang out through the silence. The guards started. The voice was somehow familiar… The princess herself looked first puzzled, then angry. Light flooded the room, warring with the darkness. "What fool challenges Celestia, bringer of light to this land?" Her voice was filled with steel, and those ponies not already against a wall backed up a step as the princess stood forward. A condescending response issued from the darkness. "The bringer of darkness, that's who." Celestia's light disappeared, and the room was filled with pitch darkness. "I have a power you cannot hope to defeat, pony princess. You will die this day, and darkness shall rule!" ☾ Sickle Moon was one of the greatest students of the darkness, able to defeat several ponies at a time, even of his own kind. He could flit from shadow to shadow, unseen by even the most watchful eye. He was the greatest spy, assassin, warrior that Luna had ever trained. And his dedication to her was absolute. It was for these reasons that she chose him for what turned out to be the most difficult mission she had ever assigned. When Blueblood had first entered the caves beneath Canterlot, the shadow ponies had paid him little mind as he blundered about in the darkness. However, he managed to (narrowly) avoid falling to his death in one of the deep crevasses, and he made it to the Font of Shadows. By the time the shadow ponies reached him, it was too late. He had drunk of the Font, and its powers had corrupted his soul. Among the ponies near the surface, who the corrupt Blackblood hadn't sealed in the caves with his barrier, the quickest and most reliable was Sickle Moon. And so Luna told him, follow the corrupt pony, and see what he intends. Sickle Moon blended with the shadows as he trailed Blackblood's progress through Canterlot. He leapt from shadow to shadow, nigh invisible to the untrained eye, even hiding behind Blackblood's own cloud of darkness when necessary. Realizing the mad pony's destination, by the time Blackblood broke down the doors to the throne room Sickle Moon was already concealed in the rafters behind a pillar, cloaked in shadows even in the presence of Celestia herself. And so Sickle Moon saw everything. He knew that Blackblood's claim was no boast. He knew that Celestia could die from the dark power that had consumed the pony. Blackblood was beyond redemption now. There was only one thing that could be done, and only two ponies in the room not blinded by Blackblood's magical darkness. One of them was Blackblood. The other leapt from his perch high above, death itself flying from above, silent, for the least sound would alert Blackblood and all would be lost. Blackblood never saw, never expected Sickle Moon's crippling strike. He cried out in pain as the steel cut through his flank, then again as it cut a second time. Blackblood staggered, and the steel slit his throat. Without Blackblood's ill-gotten power sustaining it, the spell of darkness crumbled before Celestia's light. ☾ A scream cut out from the darkness before her as Celestia saw a faint trace of a shadow within the darkness. Another cry of pain, then a wet thump as something hit the floor. She burned away the darkness before her, and it put up little fight. As the air cleared, she saw a body before her. A pony, or rather, a pony's body. Corrupted by some dark power, it was, and also making quite a mess on her pristine floor. "Blueblood? How? Why? I… I trusted you…" With a flash of light, her sister appeared. "Celestia! You're okay! I was so worried! I heard somepony tried to kill you, and I came as quickly as I could…" Luna's face seemed genuinely concerned, but who could know? Blueblood had betrayed her… a trusted advisor had turned on her, so who knew who could be trusted? Luna turned to look at her sister. "Are you okay, Celestia? You seem to be, but…" Her voice trailed off uncertainly. Celestia looked at her sister. "I trusted him, Luna! I trusted him, and he was going to kill me! I'm okay, but who know who else might betray me now…" ☾ Celestia followed her sister, invisible to the eye and masked to magic, undetectable. As long as nopony touched her and she stayed in the sun, the spell would hold. Luna passed through the castle gates, and Celestia followed close overhead. She wandered here and the, always headed in the same direction, and eventually left Canterlot altogether. Luna walked onward, quickly, as though in a hurry, now. Now that she was sure she had thrown off anypony following her, Celestia thought. The princess of the night walked down the mountainside, on a little-used path. Celestia followed, down to the entrance to a cave. For a second, she recognized the place, from some memory long forgotten, but then it was gone again. It had been so long ago. Luna entered the cave and disappeared into its depths. Celestia stopped, waited, thought for a little while. Then she followed, keeping to the shadows now as her spell collapsed. ☾ There were eyes watching her, in the dark. Eyes with intelligence behind them. Celestia sensed its presence, but it would not reveal itself. Angrily, she whirled, her horn lit, and the cavern was bathed in light. A voice cried out, and a body hit the floor, whimpering. A creature of darkness and corruption, with the body and mind of a pony, but the wings and the fangs of a bat added on. It was an abomination, living in the darkness far below Canterlot. Celestia paused for a moment. This was her sister's realm. For the first time in many long years, Celestia felt unwelcome. The creatures of this world lived in fear of the light that burned their eyes, her glorious sun. They sought out these deep places, these dark places. There are places a goddess of the sun cannot go. There are places deep, dark, and forbidding, and that darkness was sacred to her sister. Celestia's form shimmered, and it shrank down. Her sister was a master of illusions, but Celestia was no slouch either. Within moments, the sun goddess was gone, and in her place stood a denizen of the deeps. With four legs, bat wings, and a dark grey coat, she looked identical to the creatures she had caught peering from the darkness. With a little magic, she put the thing to sleep. It would not wake for many hours, and would probably just think it was a bad dream or something. Celestia wasted little thought on the matter. She would send guards down here and clean away the infestation later. Perhaps that was what Luna had been up to down here, but why wouldn't she have told Celestia? The suspicion in her mind that her sister was up to something grew. For now, the sun goddess had the creature's form, and could proceed. She passed many creatures in her descent ever downward, many creatures like this new form. She could see in the dark now, and they suspected nothing, so they did not hide from her gaze. She easily followed the trail of the magic Luna had practically radiated down here. Many others did the same. It seemed that all these things were going somewhere, summoned, perhaps, by the magic she followed. Celestia found herself in what amounted to a small city carved into the rock, in the darkness. Windows and doorways were set into the stone at the sides of the great cavern through which she travelled. Celestia slowed, wondering, now, just what these creatures were. A voice interrupted her. A young voice, hardly more than a foal. "Come on! You don't want to miss Luna, do you? Something important must have happened for her to call us all together like this." Celestia blinked. The little foal was friendly, almost like one of her own little ponies. She had to play along, or risk exposure. "Oh, of course I wouldn't want to miss seeing my- Luna." The substitution was almost too late, and the foal noticed it. "It's okay, many of us recognize her divinity. You can call her your goddess if you want to." The little foal smiled, and Celestia blinked again, but didn't bother to correct him. It. It was a thing, not a pony, she told herself. Picking up her pace, she moved on, leaving the thing behind her. ☾ Celestia arrived at a great open area, what must be the center of the town. Many ponies- no, creatures, she told herself, uncertainly- had congregated here. At least fifty, maybe more. Their ages varied, mostly young ponies, but a few adults. None of them, she noticed, were old. However, the most eye-catching thing she saw was Luna herself, standing before the crowd, on a stage. What was this? The princess of night spoke, and all fell silent. "Greeting, my little ponies." Celestia shivered at the phrase, both at its use to describe these abominations and at its use to describe a group including herself. "I'm sure you're wondering why I have called you here, to speak before you. A short time ago, a pony of the daylit world ventured into these depths, and desecrated the shadows." Celestia panicked. Had she been found out? Had her attack been discovered? Whispering began among the creatures around the disguised princess, but fell silent again at her sister's next words. "A terrible thing, I know, but the shadows have been restored and no true harm was done by the pony. His name was Blueblood, a noble of my sister's court, who I have suspected for some time. It is to my shame that I did not act sooner." Blueblood! Was this where he had gotten his power? With the kind of power that could create creatures like these, he hadn't been bluffing, Celestia realized. He could have hurt her, perhaps removed her from the picture altogether, and she hadn't even realized. He'd been all talk for so long that she hadn't realized when he'd gotten real power. Celestia realized she'd become distracted, and snapped back to her sister's speech. "…Sickle Moon nonetheless acted without orders and killed a pony in view of Princess Celestia herself, risking exposing yourself to her. Stand before me, Sickle Moon, and receive the consequences of your actions." Murmuring spread throughout the crowd. An opening appeared in the crowd, and a single pony stepped forward. Celestia was sure now, a pony, for no true abomination would save her, knowing where it would lead. And this pony clearly knew exactly where his actions would take him. One step at a time, he climbed the stairs, head lowered in shame. Celestia frowned. This was wrong. The pony who had saved her stood before her sister, ready to receive his punishment. Luna looked out to the crowd. "Do any deny the crimes this pony has committed? He has slain a pony, before Princess Celestia herself. He has risked us all by revealing himself in the daylight hours. Will any among you speak for him?" Celestia felt like Luna looked right at her, though she could never have known. The disguise was perfect. "The shadows are within him, as they are in all of you. Except for one. One pony among you is not what you seem. What do you think I should do, pony who is not what you seem?" Celestia winced. The disguise wasn't perfect. She bore no taint of darkness on her soul, as these ponies did. And Luna could see that, it seemed. How long had she known? It mattered not. She stepped forward. Instantly, the ponies around her melted back, leaving a straight path between her and the stage. As she walked, she let her disguise fade away, as it was of little use now. She stood before her sister, her identity revealed. "Celestia, sister, what fate should befall this pony? He has broken our secrecy, and slain another pony. You saw it yourself, I suspect." Celestia was sure now. "He saved my life and my throne, this Sickle Moon. He has earned his life, and I owe him a debt." Luna responded quickly, "You forgive him for killing a pony in court. Very well. But what of his other crime? He has broken the secrecy that his people need in order to survive, for you saw him. Your presence here is evidence of that." Celestia had to think quickly. She'd had a lot of practice, and it didn't take her long to realize the only way to save this pony. "I will make his crime meaningless, then. He is welcome in the daylit world, and all his kind, the same. For my life, it is the least I can do." Her sister smiled, and Celestia knew she had done exactly what her sister had wanted, but at the same time, she knew it was the right thing to have done. These ponies shouldn't have to live in fear, after all. Luna spoke again, to the crowd. "You all heard my sister's words. Hail Celestia, and hail the hero, Sickle Moon!" The crowd roared. ☾ EPILOGUE Shining Armor was in his office. Finally, order had been restored after the failed assassination of Princess Celestia. He heard a knock on the door. Sighing, he stood up and opened it, only to find himself facing some sort of monstrous creature, the likes of which he'd never seen before. "Message for you, captain," it said, producing a scroll. This was going to be a very long day.
UnbrokenUNBROKEN Luna walked down the cobbled street, her hooves eerily silent. The moon was new that night, as it always was when she walked the streets of Canterlot. A thick, black fog accompanied her, and streetlights flickered and went out as she approached, only to slowly, painfully regain their flame once she was gone. The darkness was nearly complete, as its Princess walked ever onward. Ponies feared that moving darkness. They knew not its source, its nature, or its purpose. Only one thing was known, and that was what brought their fears: where that darkness passed, sometimes, ponies would disappear without a trace. Foals, always, and usually homeless. The ones who were doomed to live and die in the streets, never knowing warmth or happiness. Few lived long enough to reach adulthood, and fewer still were able to rise above their wretched beginnings and live a happy life. The ponies who disappeared were at once the best and the worst of those wretched souls. They were the worst, in that they were usually soon to die already, whether from hunger or from abuse by more fortunate ponies. They were the best in that despite their miserable lives, they still retained that fundamental pony essence, that sheer will to survive which had kept them alive so long. They were the ones who despite the horrors which life had thrust upon them, remained unbroken in mind and in spirit. Most ponies cowered in the all-encompassing darkness, but some did not. Some ponies stood proudly even in the face of the feared unknown. The unbroken ones. Luna walked among them, spoke to them, called to them by name. Luna walked down the cobbled street, cloaked in darkness, a shadow within shadows. The next morning, the missing ponies would be noticed. Not missed, certainly not by many, but their absence would be noticed nonetheless. The unknown darkness would be blamed for their deaths, and the lack of bodies would make it all the more terrifying. Ponies she had passed by would rejoice in life, however fleeting or terrible it might be, for they still possessed it. Her passage was a reminder to them that life was not something to take for granted. It was a precious gift, and it was something to be celebrated. For once in a while, on a new moon, ponies would vanish from the streets of Canterlot, and life is never so precious as it is when it is uncertain. ☾ Harvest Moon woke up. It was night, and a new moon. The most dangerous of nights for an orphan in Canterlot, he knew. The darkness consumed ponies, as they vanished into the cold, empty air. His stomach hurt. Harvest knew he needed to eat soon, or he would die within a day or two, at most. Harvest also knew he had no food, and little chance of getting enough to keep him alive within that time. He was going to die. It was a sad irony, he thought to himself. He would soon die of hunger, even if he was not consumed by the darkness that even now rolled down the street. Harvest Moon blinked. The darkness was approaching. He should be afraid. He should flee from it, try to find shelter. But why? He would soon die anyway. It was better to face his death with dignity and with pride, he reasoned, than it was to die in some cold corner, wasting away to nothing. He stood before the coming darkness, and did not fear it. There was a flash of panic as the darkness flowed past him, and it was all he could see. Then, he saw her. She was glorious. And she turned, looked at him. He felt like her eyes could see through his soul. And she spoke to his heart. Harvest Moon, my little pony, you are dying. Your heart is noble, and your spirit pure. You do not deserve to die like this. Come, walk with me, and I will take you away from this life of pain forever. He blinked again. This goddess of night wanted him to walk with her. He did not expect to survive, but for a time, he might at least have some measure of happiness, even being close to this wondrous apparition. It did not bother him to see the three other foals already with her, nor did it when another joined them, for he had eyes only for Luna. They walked a long ways, that night. Those first ponies must have walked longer still. Somehow, the magic of the princess kept him going long past when his legs should have given out. Outside the cloud of darkness, it was close to moonset when Luna led the five young ponies into a cave. As the sun rose outside, the foals never knew; the inside of the cave remained as dark as the night they had left behind. Shadows flickered over the walls, but they did not fear, for Luna was with them. They heard strange, unfamiliar sounds, but they did not fear, for Luna was with them. Yellow, slitted eyes watched them as they walked ever downwards, but they did not fear, for Luna was with them. The procession stopped after entering a cavern, and the Princess of the Darkness finally spoke. "We have arrived. It is time." Finally, it seemed, it was over. Harvest Moon was ready to accept his death at the end of the walk, but to his surprise, it didn't come. "A meal has been prepared for you. I hope you enjoy it, my little ponies." Luna's cloak of darkness lifted, and dim light allowed the ponies to see. They found themselves in a smaller part of what must have been a very large cave system, lit by dim lamps which gave everything a bluish tint. The thing that held the ponies' attention, however, was a great table, set with all manner of foods a pony might dream of. There were all kinds of salads, there were bowls of fruit, there were pies of all sorts. There were things the foals had never seen before, and things they saw other ponies eat every day. There were cups, too, but nothing to put in them. It was like a dream come true for Harvest Moon. He knew better than to gorge himself on the bounty, however, or he would only throw it all up later. He'd learned that the hard way on one of Celestia's feast days, when there were great tables set out in the castle and anypony and everypony could come and eat. So, he picked his foods carefully, seeing his companions do the same. After a few minutes, they started talking to each other. At first, all they could talk about was the food. Some of the other ponies seemed to recognize a few of the foods that he couldn't, and encouraged him to try them. He discovered spices for the first time in his life. From his amazement at the spices came the explanation that he'd never lived anywhere but in the streets of Canterlot, his parents having died soon after he was born. He readily learned the names of the other ponies, and was soon fast friends with Crimson Rose, Orange Blossom, Sugar Song, Star Charmer, and Steel Wind. The first two were earth ponies like he was, the second two were unicorns, and the last was a pegasus. They'd all led similar lives in the streets of Canterlot, trying as best they could to stay alive, and slowly, very slowly failing. Like him, the other five ponies would have died within a few days of the new moon, had not Luna intervened. All of them now spoke of the princess in wonder, with smiles on their faces and happiness in their hearts. These were foals who knew how to derive happiness from even the smallest things, for that was all they had, and she had given them a meal when they were starving. It was not long after they finished eating that Luna returned, carrying a pitcher filled with some black liquid. She looked upon the foals, and they knew that this was a solemn moment. Their conversation ceased, and they looked uncertain for the first time. The Princess of the Darkness walked around the table, stopping to fill each pony's cup with the black liquid. It was a curious substance, seeming to swirl about of its own accord, and some of the ponies looked at it nervously. "Not so long ago, I spoke to you," she said. "I told you in your hearts that I would take you away from your life of suffering, if you would only walk with me. You have done what I asked, and now I will fulfill my promise. Never will you have to return to that life. Drink, my little ponies." Crimson Rose drank first, and then Star Charmer, Sugar Song, and Steel Wind a moment later. Even as the latter two finished the contents of the cup, Crimson Rose gasped, reaching out with a hoof, and collapsed. The other three of Harvest Moon's new friends collapsed as well, after looking stricken and unwell. Their eyes still stared ahead, unseeing. Now that he had eaten a good meal, Harvest Moon had a new desire to live. He didn't want to, but he drank the strange liquid. It as wasn't bitter as he expected, but rather almost sweet, like somepony had added too much sugar to cover up a bad taste. The stuff roiled in his mouth, but with some difficulty, he choked it down. Almost immediately, he felt a cold feeling spreading from his stomach through his body, like he'd been out in the snow and cutting wind of a winter storm for far too long. As the icy cold filled his body, everything began to fade away, and then all he knew was darkness. Soon enough, Harvest Moon was no more.
GuardGUARD Shining Armor sighed. Once again, there was panic in the streets. The dark cloud had struck again only a night before, on a new moon, as always. Whoever was behind the disappearances was a clever pony, to use the darkness of night so well. It struck him as somewhat ironic that many ponies would watch these orphans starve to death without a second thought, but if those same orphans started to simply disappear, citizens panicked. It was ironic, but it was his problem to deal with. As Captain of the Guard, it was his duty and his responsibility to keep order within Canterlot. Every new moon, he failed, as had his predecessor before him. On the streets where the darkness roamed, ponies shivered in terror. These ponies feared the unknown darkness. Shining Armor knew exactly what was going on. There was a pony responsible for this, and he would find that pony and bring the monster to justice. The fact that no bodies were ever found only made it worse. It could be a serial murderer, it could be slavery. There were some ponies without morals, ponies who would sell others into servitude to the griffins, the diamond dogs, or worse. He'd heard that most of the ones sold to the dragons ended up as lunch. The previous captain had done very little to identify the foalnapper, concerning himself far too much with trivial matters. Petty thievery, drunken brawls, and the like. Shining Armor was going to change that. Nopony would live in fear, not in his city. The new captain walked down to the districts where the darkness had been seen. There was no obvious sign of its passing, save in ponies' behavior. Everypony was silent as he passed, the people watching him carefully. "Hello?" he called out. "I'm with the guard, here to talk to you about what happened last night!" Windows slammed shut and bolts slid home in doors. This was getting nowhere. He returned to his office, defeated. ☾ Shining Armor looked over the papers before him. Nopony had seen the pony behind the disappearances. When it appeared, the dark fog would always billow out from some alley, rarely the same one twice, and then pass down the street, engulfing anyone it passed in inky blackness. It would then wander around the city, mostly the poorer parts of town but sometimes creeping into the streets of the well-to-do, before eventually passing through the main gate. The guards there reported feeling like they were frozen, unable to move as the darkness passed out of the city. Shining Armor knew that holding spells were not difficult ones, and left almost no magical signature. The darkness itself, on the other hand, did. Unfortunately, it was one that Shining Armor couldn't make any sense of. He'd sent a letter to his sister Twilight Sparkle, requesting assistance, but he wasn't sure whether she'd received¬– The door opened. "Hi Shiney!" Never mind. She had. "Hey, Twilight! How's my little sister been?" Twilight responded with something ending in an incredibly long explanation of the inefficiencies in Starswirl the Bearded's original amniomorphic spell, most of which her older brother couldn't understand. "…and then I realized that in the later version, by changing the sub-level spell matrices Starswirl was able to increase efficiency by almost eight percent, which means that I could…" "Twilight, please, you're making my head hurt. It's great to hear what you've been working on, but I have a spell I need you to identify." As he'd expected, the violet pony jumped at the chance to see a new spell. "Lead on, brother!" Against his instincts, he led his sister down to a run-down street where the darkness had appeared. A few minutes passed. "Shining?" "Twilight?" "Why did we stop?" "Oh! We're here, silly. This is where the spell was." Closing her eyes, Twilight focused hard on the spell trace, her concentration evident in her expression. It was amazing, she thought to herself. Strands of magic twisted this way and that in convoluted patterns. Ordinary spell traces were simple things, which you could use to do all sorts of things, from identifying the caster to discerning the function of the spell itself. This one, though, this one was a work of art. There must have been at least six different magical effects within this single spell, all of them of different kinds. Twilight stopped for a moment, just to revel in its incredible complexity. Releasing the trace, the unicorn opened her eyes. "Well, Shining, I don't know what this spell actually does, let alone who cast it. It's a magical masterpiece, though. Somepony worked on this spell for a very long time. I'd love to meet whoever created it." Shining Armor didn't have the heart to tell her that whoever created the spell might also be a serial murderer, of foals no less, and that he would never allow such a pony to get within so much as shouting range of his sister. He settled for something a little gentler. "I don't think that's likely to happen, Twilight." The purple pony misunderstood him completely. "Oh, don't worry! That doesn't mean we can't figure out what the spell does! Watch this!" Closing her eyes again, she hooked a tendril of her own magic into the spell matrix and fed it some power. She felt the matrix twist in her magical grasp as her own spell took hold. "This should produce an image of the original spell's effects, so we can look at it and-" Shining Armor yelled, "Twilight, you blinded me!" Twilight lost her concentration, and the spell slipped out of her control. She watched as the matrix rapidly consumed what power she had fed it, twisted in on itself, and vanished. "Twily, please never, ever do that again," moaned Shining Armor. "I can see again, but I thought I was cursed or something! Celestia herself might have had to come here to dispel it then, for all we know!" Twilight glared at him. "I said it was an image, Shining Armor. I would never cast a replica of a spell I didn't understand, certainly not one like this. Furthermore, even if it had been a curse, we would have just seen an image of a cursed pony. This spell made darkness, so that's what we saw. As far as I could tell before you made me lose my concentration, this spell made a cloud of darkness tied to the caster. I'm pretty sure it had some other effects too, but any chance we had at finding out what they were is gone now. When I lost control of my spell, it consumed the trace and vanished." Shining Armor had the sense to look contrite. "Sorry, Twilight, I guess I over-reacted a little. I know a lot about barriers and other magic for guard use, but not a lot about this kind of thing. Illusions and images aren't something I'm used to dealing with." Twilight looked back at her older brother. "That's what you have me for, BBBFF." She smiled, before continuing, "This was a pretty amazing spell, though. Thanks for calling me up here to see it." Twilight frowned. "I should get back to Ponyville. There's no knowing what mischief Spike may have gotten into while I was gone." Remembering the little purple dragon, Shining Armor nodded. "Yeah, I bet he can be a real handful. I'll walk you back to the train station."
NamelessNAMELESS The pony had once been called Harvest Moon slowly woke to a pleasant darkness. His slitted eyes glowed as they reflected the dim light, and his coat was of a dull grey instead of the bright orange it had once been. He stretched lazily, yawning as he extended his new, purple wings. He had no name, he thought, because he wasn't the same pony he had been. The pony he had been was an orphan who nopony cared for and whose death would not be mourned. The nameless pony was different. He was loved by his goddess, Luna, and he would live. He wasn't sure how he knew this, but he was sure that his goddess would protect him, watch over him, and guard him. Standing up, he found himself in a room with four other ponies like himself. He saw a large table, empty now, and remembered. There had been a meal, and then a cup. He thought he was going to die, but Luna's mercy was something more than that, it seemed. She had spoken truly; he would never return to the life he had lived. Not while Luna remained, and she was eternal. The door opened, and she entered. "You are a strong one, pony once called Harvest Moon, to have awakened so soon and so completely. But that isn't who you are anymore, is it?" The nameless pony shook his head. No, he had changed. Harvest Moon was no more. His goddess smiled gently as she regarded him. "Would you like a new name?" A new name. A new identity. A new life. Her question carried with it a sense of rightness, a sense of having the authority required to make such an offer. He found himself smiling. "Yes, my princess," the nameless pony responded, "I think I would like that very much." "Then choose, for it is up to you now what you will become." The nameless pony had once been called Harvest Moon, but that name felt wrong now. Something about it lingered within him, however. "I think I'd like to be called… Sickle Moon." If his goddess was surprised, she showed no sign. "A good name, Sickle Moon. It suits you well. Please remain here for now. It would not do for your friends to wake up alone. You are strong in will, to wake so quickly from the change. Your friends may still take some time. Let them rest for now, and I will return when they awaken." It was some time before any of the other ponies woke up. Following some unknown instinct, Sickle Moon stepped into the shadows as one of the other ponies began to stir. It was Steel Wind, though with the pony's changed appearance, he was unsure just how he knew. As the other pony slowly awakened, Sickle Moon reflected upon this. Was there some link that had been made between the five of them? It didn't feel like there was, beyond the friendship they had forged over their last meal. Perhaps it was merely remnants of Steel Wind's prior appearance. Looking at the other pony from his place in the shadows, Sickle Moon was nigh invisible, but Steel Wind was in plain view. There was indeed a trace of the pony he had once been. The gray of his coat, slightly lighter than Sickle's, and the tufts of hair on his ears, slightly longer. Steel Wind was now well and truly awake. He looked around uncertainly. "Hello? Is anyone there? Where am I?" There was a pause. "Who am I?" The time was right. Sickle Moon spoke from the shadows, "That is a question only you can answer. You will never return to the life you have left. That life is over." He stepped from the shadows into the light. "I am Sickle Moon, once called Harvest Moon. I am not the pony I used to be, however, and I suspect neither are you." As Sickle Moon spoke, the pony once called Steel Wind turned to face him. "I don't think I am either. But who am I, then? Did she tell you that?" Sickle Moon looked at the pony before him. Here was a pony much like himself, and his friend. He had to do his best to explain to this pony what Luna had told him, because she wasn't here to do it herself, and because the pony before him needed to know. "Our goddess Luna spoke to me, not long ago, and this is what she said to me. You are not the pony you once were. Who you become is up to you. She will grant you a new name, as she did me, and that will begin your new life in her sacred darkness." Wait. Our goddess? Her sacred darkness? Where did that come from? Sickle Moon hesitated. He had long known of Luna as a Princess of Equestria, but he had never really thought of her as a goddess. Yet somehow it felt right to do so. There was no question in his mind that she was divine and worthy of his devotion, but he had never thought that before… He decided after a moment's thought that it wasn't important what he had thought before; he knew now of Luna's glory and her wonder, and that was what mattered. The pony who had been Steel Wind, too, stumbled for a moment, but evidently reached the same conclusion as Sickle Moon. It was then that there was a sound from the other side of the room. Crimson Rose stirred. As one, the two ponies stepped back into the shadows as she began to awaken. ☾ Princess Luna watched as ripples spread across the pool. Her reflection disappeared, replaced by an image of a room containing five ponies. Only one was awake, the others all unconscious. As she looked on, one of them began to stir, and the pony stepped back into the shadows. She had told him she would return when the others awakened, but she wanted to see what this pony would do. What she had told him before was the truth; no other pony had woken so completely, or so quickly. The princess of the night watched as he waited for the other pony to get his bearings, before speaking from the shadows, only stepping into the light as he introduced himself. A flair for the dramatic, it seemed. Luna smiled, remembering days long ago, as the surface of the pool rippled to replicate the pony's speech. When he referred to her as his goddess, she blinked. Such a rapid association was also rare. She knew that this pony would willingly follow her to the depths of Tartarus if she called upon him, and had the strength to actually do so. She shivered for a moment, and the image in the pool vanished. ☾ Sickle Moon turned as the door opened, his enhanced hearing picking up the slight scrape of the wood on stone. He bowed, followed by four other ponies, as Luna entered. His goddess looked upon him. Hail, Luna. "My little ponies," she began. "I once offered you death. It takes a great deal of courage to accept such an offer, but it takes even more to live again. Now, I give you life again in my name. It is up to you what you make of it in these depths, far below Canterlot. "You have no doubt realized that you are changed from the ponies you used to be. The ponies who followed me here were destined to die, but you can make your own lives now, your fates rewritten by the magic of the Font of Shadows. You are creatures of myth, now, all but forgotten in the mists of time. As creatures of the night, you fall within my domain alone. When you walk at night, my darkness will cloak you, but should you pass into the light of day, you will be seen. "Even Celestia does not know that you exist today; she never knew the true origins of the nox equus, the pony of the night. The Font of Shadows itself must be protected from those who would abuse its power, and that task is your charge. Do not be seen by the light of day, but otherwise, your life is up to you." Luna was not surprised when Sickle Moon spoke first, breaking a long silence. "I would live in the service of my goddess, if it pleases you." Cocking her head, Luna feigned ignorance of his meaning. "Well, I suppose that depends on who your goddess is…" she trailed off. The response was instant. "It is you, Princess Luna, goddess of night, of shadows, and of darkness. Your stars guide me in the night, and it is your shadows wherein I hide, your darkness wherein I find shelter. Your wonder is infinite, and your glory everlasting." Luna blinked. This one would be a handful. Her next words were very careful. She could make anything of this pony, anything she wished. A guard, a servant, an assassin, even a… she turned her mind from such thoughts. "Please, call me Luna. We have no need for titles in these depths, for in the darkness all ponies are the same. But I do have a need for ponies with your dedication. As I said before, the Font of Shadows must be guarded, and those who guard it must do so with their lives." Sickle Moon simply nodded. As they always did. "You will receive training far exceeding that found in the world above," she continued, "and far beyond the capability of the strongest ponies of the world you have left. Even with the gifts of the Font of Shadow, most ponies fail." Her warning went unheeded, if not unnoticed. "I will pass any test you give me, Pri- Luna." She smirked. Like all the others, he would break, eventually. "We shall see."
DarknessDARKNESS It was night, in the deep woods of the Everfree Forest. Few ponies dared to tread between those trunks, let alone at night, but Sickle Moon had no fear of them. The pony standing before Sickle Moon looked unearthly, as though he was made almost entirely of shadow itself. It looked at him, and its eyes were orbs of darkness so deep they seemed to draw the light out of the world. Sickle Moon shivered involuntarily, but he was not afraid. By Luna's grace, he would face whatever he needed to in order to become her worthy servant. Then it spoke. "You are the one they call Sickle Moon," it stated in a gravelly voice, steeped with time. "Are you afraid?" Defiantly, the young pony shook his head. "You should be. I am called Noctis, created by Luna's will from the Font of Shadow. My purpose is to guide you, until you truly become the sickle of Luna's moon. For your first test, answer me a single question, mortal pony: What do you fear?" "What do I fear? I fear nothing, Noctis, for I have Luna to guide me." "And if Luna is gone? What then?" "Luna would never leave me!" "No, she would not. Not of her own will, at least. Yet, there are powers which surpass her own. Celestia once used one of them to lock her away for a thousand years in the moon. Or did you forget?" Sickle Moon stumbled. It was difficult to imagine Luna not being there, even though he knew she had returned only recently from that long imprisonment. "What will you do, mortal pony, when Luna cannot guide you? If you wish to achieve true control, you must think for yourself. Strike me, pony." Sickle Moon looked at the ghostly pony before him. The creature looked to be a thousand years old. "I don't want to hurt you…" Instead of a response, the spectral figure kicked Sickle Moon, hard enough to send him reeling from the blow. "Strike me, pony." Sickle Moon was angry now. He lunged at the other pony, only to fall flat as his hoof passed right through his target. "Strike me, pony." Again, Sickle Moon struck, this time with a hard backwards kick. Again, his hooves passed right through his target. "Strike me, pony." "Why? When I strike you, Noctis, it does nothing." Noctis looked impassive. "So I cannot be touched? You must successfully strike me in combat to progress in your training. You know this." Sickle Moon frowned, uncertain. "Tell me, Noctis. How many ponies give up?" Noctis' expression remained unchanged. "At this level, some ponies give up, yes. Eventually? They all do. "Strike me, pony." All of them? If the training was impossible, then where did the Centurions come from? Sickle Moon's confusion was interrupted by an attack from Noctis, knocking the pony to the ground. "It's impossible!" Sickle Moon yelled. Noctis was unmoved. "Do you give up, then? Will you join the rest of the ponies who failed to pass the test? Or will you keep trying the same thing over and over? Strike me, pony." Something in the shadow pony's taunt resonated within Sickle Moon. Sickle Moon's eyes flashed. In order to strike Sickle Moon, Noctis had to be solid. Watching for the trainer's blow, Sickle Moon dodged it and counterattacked with a blow of his own. It hit something that felt incredibly cold, but yielded under the force of his hoof. Noctis stumbled, hard. "Well done, mortal pony. You have gone outside the limits you set for yourself, and done what you could not before. We shall proceed to the next lesson. This one is a little harder. To make things easier, I will remain in a solid form during this test. Strike me, pony." A breath of wind passed along Sickle Moon's flank, and he shivered. Reaching out, he hit Noctis in the flank, but his hoof passed right through, with no resistance. Something tripped him, and he fell to the dirt. Sickle Moon swore. "You said you would remain in solid form!" Noctis spoke, standing behind him now. "And I did." Sickle Moon whirled to face the trainer. "Strike me, pony." A breath of wind passed by again, Sickle Moon's hoof passed through the pony's form, and he was tripped again. Noctis' voice was behind him again, impassive as ever. "You must learn to do what you cannot. Strike me, pony." Sickle Moon remembered the previous test. If Noctis was in a solid form, and his hoof passed through where he knew Noctis to be, then Noctis wasn't where he should be. He was tripped again. "You are correct. Your senses deceive you. Strike me, pony." Sickle Moon faced Noctis and closed his eyes. When he felt a breath of wind pass by, he turned and struck at its source. Noctis shimmered into view, stumbling, as his image vanished from where it had been. "You have passed this test, pony. Your eyes will not always tell you true. You have learned this now. You have gone outside the limits you set for yourself, and done what you could not before. We shall now proceed to the next lesson. This one is a little harder. To make things easier, I will again remain in a solid form." A brisk breeze sprang up, rustling the leaves around the two ponies, and Noctis vanished entirely. "Strike me, pony." With the Sickle Moon couldn't feel the trainer's passing with the breeze interfering. He struck where the pony had been before, blindly, his hooves meeting only air. "Strike me, pony." This time, Sickle Moon struck to the other side, but again he found only air, and Noctis tripped him from behind, as he had before. "How am I supposed to hit you when I can't tell where you are?" cried out the frustrated pony as he got to his hooves. "You could be anywhere! If I strike blindly, I'll just miss!" "This is true, pony. Blindly lashing out will not-" Noctis' response was cut off as Sickle Moon tackled him. After a moment, he spoke again. "You could not see me yourself, so you tricked me into revealing my location. An interesting tactic, but not the purpose of this exercise." Noctis got up, and then faded from view once again. "Strike me, pony." "You must learn to do what you cannot. Strike me, pony." Sickle Moon feinted left, then struck right. He missed. "Your feint is unconvincing and needs work. You will not fool somepony as experienced as I with such a tactic. Strike me, pony." Standing on one of his front legs, Sickle Moon quickly swung his body around in a circle, just to see if Noctis was even there. One of his rear legs touched Noctis' cold body. "You have touched me, yes. However, a blow that was not. Spreading your power over such a wide area will leave little force behind your blow. Strike me, pony." Abruptly, Sickle Moon knew what he had to do. He rapidly swung around as he had before, but this time when his leading rear hoof touched cold flesh he planted the other and pushed off towards Noctis' location with his front hooves. Sickle Moon's body swung around and slammed into Noctis, knocking them both to the ground. "An effective maneuver," the spectral pony admitted, "if inelegant. You have gone outside the limits you set for yourself, and done what you could not before. I can see that your body is exhausted. We are done for tonight. Practice what you have learned, and then return to this place." The pony faded from view one last time, with a sense of finality. With a sigh, Sickle Moon began the flight back towards Canterlot, his wings beating heavily through the night air.
TraitorTRAITOR As always, silence reigned supreme in the grand Library of Canterlot. In a dark corner of the place sat Prince Blueblood, searching for a way. He would find one. It might take a very long time, but he would find a way. She opposed him. She was in his way, working behind his back, undoing his machinations. When he quietly removed restrictions and laws to protect workers, she quietly put them back. When he found ways to turn ponies against her, she quickly won them over once again. With Celestia in the way, Blueblood's power could not grow. Her policies were good to her ponies, but bad for his own goals. He had to remove her from the equation. He knew that no cell could contain the avatar of the sun, that no binding could hold her. He knew that he could never turn her ponies against her faster than she could win them back. He could not reveal her corruption, for she had none. There was only one way to remove the ruler of Equestria: through that most dangerous of methods: he had to destroy her. He had to match her power and overwhelm her with his own. He had to overpower the sun itself, find something stronger. And so Blueblood had come here, to the greatest library in Equestria, chasing ancient legends and long-forgotten tales. He had found nothing of use. There were hints of things, references to ancient powers. The Elements of Harmony. The Crystal Heart. The Rainbow of Light. The Smooze. Useless, all of it. Certainly, these were all powerful, but none of them could be twisted to his will. Blueblood was almost ready to give up on his search when he found a reference to something else. One book on dark magic mentioned an artifact, long hidden away, called the Font of Shadow. It was said to grant incredible power to one who could master its power, at an unspecified cost. In the wrong hands, the author claimed, the Font could wreak havoc upon the land. This was the power Blueblood needed. The Font of Shadow would be his, if only he could find it. Changing the focus of his search, Blueblood looked through historical documents, searching for irregularities. If the Font were discovered, surely Celestia, with her burning hatred of dark magic, would have acted on it. Finally, he found it. Well over a thousand years ago, there was a mine deep beneath modern Canterlot which inadvertently tunneled into some natural caverns. After an expedition into the caverns, they were sealed away by Celestia's order, without explanation. Records of the expedition itself were missing entirely, but references to it indicated that something was discovered down there. It had to be the Font of Shadow. Blueblood was certain of it. Looking at more recent records, he saw that the mine had been quietly closed a few years ago at the directive of Princess Luna. The reason given was that it was undermining the ground beneath Canterlot. Looking at geological surveys, the mine was not only on the other side of the mountain, but far enough below Canterlot that there shouldn't have been a problem. However, all surveys of the central part of the mountain were strangely missing, despite records of such surveys having been made. The princesses were hiding something deep inside the mountain. Blueblood stood. He knew now what to do. He would find the Font of Shadow, he would take its power, and he would use it to destroy Celestia. The pony strode from the library, satisfied. Assembling a team was an easy matter. Few ponies wanted to work for the abrasive noble, but he had enough bits that they agreed anyway. Everypony has a price, and Blueblood could pay it. Ponies with experience in caves. Unicorns with powerful light spells, and strong earth ponies to carry supplies and equipment (and otherwise be ignored, of course). ☾ He took his team of five ponies down to the base of the mountain, a few weeks later. The gate to the old mine was rusted and locked; he blasted the lock with a bolt of magic and had another pony push the gate open. The mine itself was small and cramped. Blueblood was thankful for his foresight in bringing the unicorns along; the place was pitch dark inside. Somewhere in the distance, water dripped. A discarded map revealed the location of the cavern. When a rockfall blocked the way, he ordered the earth ponies to clear it away. Many hours passed before Blueblood's team reached the caverns. Emerging finally from the cramped tunnels of the mine, the ponies found themselves in a decent-sized cavern. There was a hint of light from one end. Blueblood told a unicorn to investigate. When she returned, she reported that there was an entrance to the surface in an adjoining cavern. Blueblood cursed. "All that wasted time in the mines waiting for the earth ponies to clear rocks, and we could have gotten in right here." One of the two earth ponies said to the other, "No amount of bits is worth dealing with the prince. I'm out of here." He dropped his pack and walked out of the cave. Blueblood never saw him again, and didn't care. The rest of the ponies had quickly set up a base camp at the entrance. Night was approaching, and the ponies (except Blueblood, who hadn't been doing any work) were tired. They flatly refused to move on that night. ☾ Prince Blueblood woke up. His bedding had been entirely unsatisfactory, it had been difficult for him to get to sleep, and his hooves hurt from all the walking, but he tolerated the primitive conditions. The Font of Shadow had better be worth it. Looking around, he saw that he was the last to awaken, and that the other ponies had begun without him, almost completely ready to get started. Breakfast was waiting for him, as it should have been. Then he saw what it was. "Oatmeal? Are you crazy?" ☾ Blueblood peered through the darkness. Before him, it stretched on endlessly, like a well going down, down, down, forever into the depths of the mountain. The light from his horn extended only a few feet, only a few precious feet of light to push back the darkness all around him. The pathetic earth ponies had abandoned him early on, and the unicorns had turned back as well. His promises of gold were ignored, his threats of retribution leading to no better result. Like it or not, he was alone in the darkness. To his left, he thought he saw a light, a reflection in the consuming blackness which surrounded him. And then it was gone, just as quickly. Blueblood shuddered. Had he seen something? Was it his imagination playing tricks on him? He wasn't sure. He picked up the pace of his steps, and hurried onward. Blueblood noticed that the cave had a downward slope. He was descending, not only going deeper into the mountain, but deeper underground as well. Then he saw another glint of light, gone, just as quickly as the first, but this time to his right. Blueblood kept walking. His eyes darted this way and that, but the unicorn kept walking, onward, ever onward and downward into the deepest reaches of the mountain. A flash. Eyes! He was sure of it! Something down here was watching him, something in the dark. Blueblood kept moving, but he was trotting now. He wanted to get out of this cursed cave, which he became increasingly certain was watching him, eying him with malice in mind, before it could swallow him up. The darkness! The eyes! ☾ Blueblood found himself before a wide, raised basin of water, ornamented with all manner of creatures of darkness carved into the solid piece of stone from which the room and the basin were wrought. Bats, spiders, and things he couldn't identify. A few of the carvings even looked like some unholy combination of pony and bat. The carvings were incredibly detailed, incredibly lifelike, almost as though- "Halt, intruder." Blueblood whirled, loosing a blast of arcane energy at the voice. A voice cried out in surprise, then pain. He heard something hit the rock of the cave floor, then silence reigned once again, save for the sound of his own heavy breathing. The darkness beyond his horn's light was so intense he could almost touch it. He peered down into the water in the basin. His horn's light could not penetrate the inky darkness of the liquid, for he soon realized it wasn't water at all. The liquid was some oily substance, seeming to swallow up any light that touched it. This must be the place which he sought. The Font of Shadows. Suddenly unsure, Blueblood hesitated. What power did this liquid hold? What- "Do not desecrate the Font!" angry voices called out. "Step away!" Blueblood wasn't sure if the angry voices were real or just in his mind, but he didn't intend to stick around to find out. He bent down over the pool, and drank deeply of the liquid within. ☾ The darkness was within him. It breathed as he did, as one. Blackblood looked around him, and smiled. The power was his now, his to control and his to command. The darkness around him no longer impeded his vision, and he strode outside the room with confidence. There was shouting behind him, sounds of panic and rage. With a thought, a shimmering barrier of blackest night appeared behind him. Blackblood strode on as the shouts turned from anger to frustration. His power was absolute. Nothing would stop him now. Blackblood strode from the cave into the light, his hooves trailing wisps of dark energy. The sun-loving faces of the ponies would tremble before his power. He cloaked himself in darkness, a cloud of night moving through the afternoon sun. Ponies screamed in fright, and he smiled. Celestia would die this day. Silently, he marched onward. Nothing and nopony stood in his way and survived. Guards panicked and fled their posts at the castle gates. He broke them down with a bolt of dark energy far more powerful than the one he had used before his rise to power. Nothing opposed him as he broke down the doors to the throne room. "Celestia! Your time has come, and you shall die this day!"
To All Things, An EndTO ALL THINGS, AN END The doors to the throne room burst open. Ponies scattered as a cloud of darkness filled the room, billowing forth from the door. The court fled in terror, but the guards at least stood firm. These were no weak-willed conscripts, no, these were Celestia's elite guard - not that she needed them. Celestia stood tall, proud and defiant in the face of this threat. "Celestia! Your time had come, and you shall die this day!" The cry rang out through the silence. The guards started. The voice was somehow familiar… The princess herself looked first puzzled, then angry. Light flooded the room, warring with the darkness. "What fool challenges Celestia, bringer of light to this land?" Her voice was filled with steel, and those ponies not already against a wall backed up a step as the princess stood forward. A condescending response issued from the darkness. "The bringer of darkness, that's who." Celestia's light disappeared, and the room was filled with pitch darkness. "I have a power you cannot hope to defeat, pony princess. You will die this day, and darkness shall rule!" ☾ Sickle Moon was one of the greatest students of the darkness, able to defeat several ponies at a time, even of his own kind. He could flit from shadow to shadow, unseen by even the most watchful eye. He was the greatest spy, assassin, warrior that Luna had ever trained. And his dedication to her was absolute. It was for these reasons that she chose him for what turned out to be the most difficult mission she had ever assigned. When Blueblood had first entered the caves beneath Canterlot, the shadow ponies had paid him little mind as he blundered about in the darkness. However, he managed to (narrowly) avoid falling to his death in one of the deep crevasses, and he made it to the Font of Shadows. By the time the shadow ponies reached him, it was too late. He had drunk of the Font, and its powers had corrupted his soul. Among the ponies near the surface, who the corrupt Blackblood hadn't sealed in the caves with his barrier, the quickest and most reliable was Sickle Moon. And so Luna told him, follow the corrupt pony, and see what he intends. Sickle Moon blended with the shadows as he trailed Blackblood's progress through Canterlot. He leapt from shadow to shadow, nigh invisible to the untrained eye, even hiding behind Blackblood's own cloud of darkness when necessary. Realizing the mad pony's destination, by the time Blackblood broke down the doors to the throne room Sickle Moon was already concealed in the rafters behind a pillar, cloaked in shadows even in the presence of Celestia herself. And so Sickle Moon saw everything. He knew that Blackblood's claim was no boast. He knew that Celestia could die from the dark power that had consumed the pony. Blackblood was beyond redemption now. There was only one thing that could be done, and only two ponies in the room not blinded by Blackblood's magical darkness. One of them was Blackblood. The other leapt from his perch high above, death itself flying from above, silent, for the least sound would alert Blackblood and all would be lost. Blackblood never saw, never expected Sickle Moon's crippling strike. He cried out in pain as the steel cut through his flank, then again as it cut a second time. Blackblood staggered, and the steel slit his throat. Without Blackblood's ill-gotten power sustaining it, the spell of darkness crumbled before Celestia's light. ☾ A scream cut out from the darkness before her as Celestia saw a faint trace of a shadow within the darkness. Another cry of pain, then a wet thump as something hit the floor. She burned away the darkness before her, and it put up little fight. As the air cleared, she saw a body before her. A pony, or rather, a pony's body. Corrupted by some dark power, it was, and also making quite a mess on her pristine floor. "Blueblood? How? Why? I… I trusted you…" With a flash of light, her sister appeared. "Celestia! You're okay! I was so worried! I heard somepony tried to kill you, and I came as quickly as I could…" Luna's face seemed genuinely concerned, but who could know? Blueblood had betrayed her… a trusted advisor had turned on her, so who knew who could be trusted? Luna turned to look at her sister. "Are you okay, Celestia? You seem to be, but…" Her voice trailed off uncertainly. Celestia looked at her sister. "I trusted him, Luna! I trusted him, and he was going to kill me! I'm okay, but who know who else might betray me now…" ☾ Celestia followed her sister, invisible to the eye and masked to magic, undetectable. As long as nopony touched her and she stayed in the sun, the spell would hold. Luna passed through the castle gates, and Celestia followed close overhead. She wandered here and the, always headed in the same direction, and eventually left Canterlot altogether. Luna walked onward, quickly, as though in a hurry, now. Now that she was sure she had thrown off anypony following her, Celestia thought. The princess of the night walked down the mountainside, on a little-used path. Celestia followed, down to the entrance to a cave. For a second, she recognized the place, from some memory long forgotten, but then it was gone again. It had been so long ago. Luna entered the cave and disappeared into its depths. Celestia stopped, waited, thought for a little while. Then she followed, keeping to the shadows now as her spell collapsed. ☾ There were eyes watching her, in the dark. Eyes with intelligence behind them. Celestia sensed its presence, but it would not reveal itself. Angrily, she whirled, her horn lit, and the cavern was bathed in light. A voice cried out, and a body hit the floor, whimpering. A creature of darkness and corruption, with the body and mind of a pony, but the wings and the fangs of a bat added on. It was an abomination, living in the darkness far below Canterlot. Celestia paused for a moment. This was her sister's realm. For the first time in many long years, Celestia felt unwelcome. The creatures of this world lived in fear of the light that burned their eyes, her glorious sun. They sought out these deep places, these dark places. There are places a goddess of the sun cannot go. There are places deep, dark, and forbidding, and that darkness was sacred to her sister. Celestia's form shimmered, and it shrank down. Her sister was a master of illusions, but Celestia was no slouch either. Within moments, the sun goddess was gone, and in her place stood a denizen of the deeps. With four legs, bat wings, and a dark grey coat, she looked identical to the creatures she had caught peering from the darkness. With a little magic, she put the thing to sleep. It would not wake for many hours, and would probably just think it was a bad dream or something. Celestia wasted little thought on the matter. She would send guards down here and clean away the infestation later. Perhaps that was what Luna had been up to down here, but why wouldn't she have told Celestia? The suspicion in her mind that her sister was up to something grew. For now, the sun goddess had the creature's form, and could proceed. She passed many creatures in her descent ever downward, many creatures like this new form. She could see in the dark now, and they suspected nothing, so they did not hide from her gaze. She easily followed the trail of the magic Luna had practically radiated down here. Many others did the same. It seemed that all these things were going somewhere, summoned, perhaps, by the magic she followed. Celestia found herself in what amounted to a small city carved into the rock, in the darkness. Windows and doorways were set into the stone at the sides of the great cavern through which she travelled. Celestia slowed, wondering, now, just what these creatures were. A voice interrupted her. A young voice, hardly more than a foal. "Come on! You don't want to miss Luna, do you? Something important must have happened for her to call us all together like this." Celestia blinked. The little foal was friendly, almost like one of her own little ponies. She had to play along, or risk exposure. "Oh, of course I wouldn't want to miss seeing my- Luna." The substitution was almost too late, and the foal noticed it. "It's okay, many of us recognize her divinity. You can call her your goddess if you want to." The little foal smiled, and Celestia blinked again, but didn't bother to correct him. It. It was a thing, not a pony, she told herself. Picking up her pace, she moved on, leaving the thing behind her. ☾ Celestia arrived at a great open area, what must be the center of the town. Many ponies- no, creatures, she told herself, uncertainly- had congregated here. At least fifty, maybe more. Their ages varied, mostly young ponies, but a few adults. None of them, she noticed, were old. However, the most eye-catching thing she saw was Luna herself, standing before the crowd, on a stage. What was this? The princess of night spoke, and all fell silent. "Greeting, my little ponies." Celestia shivered at the phrase, both at its use to describe these abominations and at its use to describe a group including herself. "I'm sure you're wondering why I have called you here, to speak before you. A short time ago, a pony of the daylit world ventured into these depths, and desecrated the shadows." Celestia panicked. Had she been found out? Had her attack been discovered? Whispering began among the creatures around the disguised princess, but fell silent again at her sister's next words. "A terrible thing, I know, but the shadows have been restored and no true harm was done by the pony. His name was Blueblood, a noble of my sister's court, who I have suspected for some time. It is to my shame that I did not act sooner." Blueblood! Was this where he had gotten his power? With the kind of power that could create creatures like these, he hadn't been bluffing, Celestia realized. He could have hurt her, perhaps removed her from the picture altogether, and she hadn't even realized. He'd been all talk for so long that she hadn't realized when he'd gotten real power. Celestia realized she'd become distracted, and snapped back to her sister's speech. "…Sickle Moon nonetheless acted without orders and killed a pony in view of Princess Celestia herself, risking exposing yourself to her. Stand before me, Sickle Moon, and receive the consequences of your actions." Murmuring spread throughout the crowd. An opening appeared in the crowd, and a single pony stepped forward. Celestia was sure now, a pony, for no true abomination would save her, knowing where it would lead. And this pony clearly knew exactly where his actions would take him. One step at a time, he climbed the stairs, head lowered in shame. Celestia frowned. This was wrong. The pony who had saved her stood before her sister, ready to receive his punishment. Luna looked out to the crowd. "Do any deny the crimes this pony has committed? He has slain a pony, before Princess Celestia herself. He has risked us all by revealing himself in the daylight hours. Will any among you speak for him?" Celestia felt like Luna looked right at her, though she could never have known. The disguise was perfect. "The shadows are within him, as they are in all of you. Except for one. One pony among you is not what you seem. What do you think I should do, pony who is not what you seem?" Celestia winced. The disguise wasn't perfect. She bore no taint of darkness on her soul, as these ponies did. And Luna could see that, it seemed. How long had she known? It mattered not. She stepped forward. Instantly, the ponies around her melted back, leaving a straight path between her and the stage. As she walked, she let her disguise fade away, as it was of little use now. She stood before her sister, her identity revealed. "Celestia, sister, what fate should befall this pony? He has broken our secrecy, and slain another pony. You saw it yourself, I suspect." Celestia was sure now. "He saved my life and my throne, this Sickle Moon. He has earned his life, and I owe him a debt." Luna responded quickly, "You forgive him for killing a pony in court. Very well. But what of his other crime? He has broken the secrecy that his people need in order to survive, for you saw him. Your presence here is evidence of that." Celestia had to think quickly. She'd had a lot of practice, and it didn't take her long to realize the only way to save this pony. "I will make his crime meaningless, then. He is welcome in the daylit world, and all his kind, the same. For my life, it is the least I can do." Her sister smiled, and Celestia knew she had done exactly what her sister had wanted, but at the same time, she knew it was the right thing to have done. These ponies shouldn't have to live in fear, after all. Luna spoke again, to the crowd. "You all heard my sister's words. Hail Celestia, and hail the hero, Sickle Moon!" The crowd roared. ☾ EPILOGUE Shining Armor was in his office. Finally, order had been restored after the failed assassination of Princess Celestia. He heard a knock on the door. Sighing, he stood up and opened it, only to find himself facing some sort of monstrous creature, the likes of which he'd never seen before. "Message for you, captain," it said, producing a scroll. This was going to be a very long day.
